Railway-spike.



side faces of the spilre are left smooth, thus reducing the expense ofmanufacturing.

As will be readily obvious, when the spike is embedded within a tie, thewood fibers thereof will expand into the concave faces 14 and willparticularly expand to engage the front and rear faces of the spike, andthus enter the grooves 16 to be engaged by the curved shoulders 18formed by the side walls of saidv grooves. Said shoulders being arrangedtransversely of the spike, will therefore, engage the tie to prevent thever- Ytical movement of the spike, and it will also hev clear that theadjacent portions of the tie expanded into the grooves 16 will alsoexpand to be engaged by the oppositely inclincd shoulders 18 formed bythe end Walls of each of said grooves. rlhis is best shown in Fig. 4- ofthe drawings and it will be ohserved that said shoulders are so arrangedas to prevent transverse movement of the spike. y

l thus provide a construction wherein the spike is held, when inengagement with the tie, both as against vertical and transversemovement, and while l have shown the longitudinally spaced grooves 16 asextending the entire length of the adjacent concave faces 14 of thespike, still, it is to loe under-y stood/that l do notwish to limitmyself to any particular nulnbc of said grooves nor to the relativespacing thereof. From the above description in connection with theaccompanying drawings, it will loe seen that l provide a very simple andedicient structure Ifor the purpose set forth, such as may be readilymanufactured and which will he foundI highly practical in actual use.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is 1. A railway spike" including a shank having a headformed thereon and being provided with a driving point, said shank being formed with adjacent side faces having longitudinally extendingchannels formed therein, one of said channels being`sulostan- 'tiallysmooth and the other of said channels being provided with a plurality oftransversely extending shoulders and oppositely inclined convergingshoulders.

2. A railway spike including a shank having a head formed thereon andbeing provided with a driving point, said shank being substantiallyrectangular in cross section and formed with fiat faces adjacent thehead thereof, there being longitudinally eX- tending channels mediallyformed vin the sides of the shank at the adjacent extremities of saidflat faces, oppositely disposed channels being arranged in pairs, onepair ideales 3. railway spille including a shank having' a head formedthereon and provided with a driving point, said shank having atransversely arranged shoulder formed thereon continuously curved fromend to end. and providedl with oppositely inclined shoulders at theextremities of-said vfirst mentioned shoulder, said last mentionedshoulders inclining inwardly toward each over said first menother and ina direction tioned4 shoulder. i

e. A railway spike includinga shank having a head formed thereon andprovided with a driving point, said shank having a groove formed thereindening transversely arranged. shoulders upon one side of the shank, saidshoulders being continuously curved from end to end and said shankhaving oppositely inclined shoulders formed thereon at the extremitiesof said first nientioned shoulders, said last mentioned shouldersinclining inwardly toward each other and in a direction over said grooveand over said first mentioned shoulders.

5. A railway spike including a shank have` ing a head formed thereon andprovided with a driving point, said shank having a transversely arrangedshoulder formed thereon continuously curved from end to end and 'havingoutwardly converging oppositely inclined shoulders formed thereon at theextremities of said first mentioned 'shoulder.

with a driving point, vsaid shank being,

formed with a longitudinally extending channel lipon one side thereofand having a transversely disposed groove formed in said G. A railwayspike including a shank liav- .Y ing a head formed thereon and providedsubstantially les

